Star 80

When a performer can make you love and hate their character, feel pity, shame, worry, and all of the above simultaneously, that is great acting. Eric Roberts achieves all this and more ! Only Shirley Booth in "Come Back Little Sheba" and Eric Roberts in "Star 80" have had this kind of impact on me. Incredible film. Sort of off-topic now, but if you look closely, you will see "Victoria Porter" from "All That Jazz" as an auto show "hostess" and the dance mistress/choreographer's assistant, also from "ATJ" as a script supervisor during a movie filming scene. The entire film was very believable! Had a right here, right now feeling to it.

Whitin this shockingly beautiful docudrama there is a performance by Eric Roberts that goes beyond anything we had ever seen an actor do on screen. He explodes in front of our eyes. Fearless, horrible, pathetic, sad but above all truthful. With the kind of truth we're not use to deal with. I was horrified because I understood it, like James Mason in Lolita. I'm not sympathising with him but I'm understanding him. The counterpart to Roberts's human monster is not Mariel Hemigway's beautiful Dorothy Stratten but Carroll Baker as Dorothy's mother. We can tell by looking into her face that she knows. She knows,she senses, she fears to be right because there is so little she can do. Carroll Baker's superb portrayal represents us. We dread what she dreads and like her, we're impotent to the unavoidable. Star 80 is a masterpiece. Like all of Bob Fosse's work, nothing is casual. The puzzle that he presents us with, connects the dots in a twisted, although immediately recognisable, pattern, leading inexorably to the most excruciating domestic tragedy. From Othelo to O J Simpson. Our every day horror served cold as a shattering work of art.

Eric Roberts stole the show big time in this movie. He created one of the most despicable characters in all movie history, the small-time hustler Paul Snider. From the moment early on in the film when he's seen practicing his falsely sincere greetings in a mirror, the viewer takes an instant dislike to him. As he manipulates the naive and beautiful Dorothy Stratton (Mariel Hemingway) for his own selfish purposes the feeling gets almost exponentially larger. Hemingway is unlucky in a way to have to go up against such a dominating performance. She can't hope to match it, but she does a good enough job to make the film work. Cliff Robertson is excellent in the role of Hugh Hefner, which probably wasn't an easy situation, given that that man is both a well-known figure yet still a mysterious legend to some. Contrary to what a lot of people thought, I don't think Hefner came out looking that badly in the way that he was portrayed. This was a sad and ugly story but he wasn't the villain.

The movie serves as an epitaph to an ordinary young woman with extraordinary beauty who never had a chance once she got in the clutches of such a self-serving user. For me the most painfully sad moment in the movie came when Dorothy's mother (Carroll Baker) contemptuously tells Snider, "She never even used to go around in her bathrobe before you came along."

This movie is obviously not a lot of laughs but it's still worthwhile, especially for the outstanding performance of Roberts.

Eric Roberts was clearly the `STAR' of Star 80. His performance as the self proclaimed Gods gift to Women character Paul Snider is really what makes this film. He makes the viewer take an instant dislike to him from his opening scene and carries it all the way through. Mariel Heminways portrayal of the ill fated Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten is maybe lukewarm marginal. Cliff Robertson is cast as Hugh Hefner but somehow doesn't seem right for the role.

Sadly this was in fact a true tragic story. See it for no other reason than Eric Roberts superb portrayal of the seven letter word usually considered vulgar meaning a stupid, incompetent or detestable person boyfriend/husband/manager of Dorothy Stratten. Vastly superior to the alternate version 1981's Death of A Centerfold.

An excellent film. Fosse's direction is flawless as he takes us inside the world of a controller who loses his grip and power. Mariel is wonderful as Dorothy Statton. Eric Robert's performance is of Oscar Caliber quality -- his portrayal haunts you and you can see his weakness -- you hate him, but a part of you can almost feel sorry for him until his real intentions are suddenly realized. This film was very well-done and deserves to be seen. This was Fosse's last film and it deserves to be seen. From the first frame, one is drawn into a spiraling cycle of destruction. Mariel's performance is perfect as she creates the naive young girl who as she changes into a more wordly woman who wants to explore life and all the possibilities which are opening for her. Much like A Star Is Born, this account of one Hollywood partner gaining fame as another falls. Not for the squeamish.